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I am very glad to announce several achievements on my works at this point |
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Finally I completed the full score of Ai-en, an opera in three acts on July 1, 2005. The opera was commissioned from the National Opera House of Japan (New National Theatre, Tokyo) and will be premiered on February 17, 18, and 19, 2006. (Please refer to here)
You can see details of Ai-en at “Invitation to Miki Operas” on this site.
Details of New National Theatre, Tokyo is here. |
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The opera concludes "Minoru Miki, eight full length opera series along 1500 years' Japanese history". I began composing these operas by Shunkin-Sho (1975) in Japanese. But the second An Actor's Revenge (1979), and the third Joruri (1985) were commissioned by English and American opera theatre to compose in English. The fourth Wakahime (1991), the fifth Shizuka and Yoshitsune (1993), the sixth twin opera The River Sumida + Kusabira (1995) were composed in Japanese. The seventh The Tale of Genji (1999) was commissioned from American opera theatre again and premiered in English in 2000. Now Ai-en (2005) composed in Japanese became the concluding work of my opera series. Details of all operas can see also at Invitation to Miki Operas. |
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 In last September, the English version of my forth opera Wakahime was completed by Colin Graham, and just published 400 pages vocal score from the BCA beautifully on July 11th. Thus half of my full-length opera are having both English and Japanese versions (An Actor's Revenge has English-German-Japanese versions). |
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The Japanese version of my third opera Joruri will be premiered on September 21, 23, and 25 of this year at Theatre 1010 in Tokyo. The opera will be conducted by Andreas Mitisec and be directed by Colin Graham. Setsu Asakura, the Artistic Director, will be the set and costume designer. The cast will be comprised of top artists in Japan. |
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Ms. Yang Jing, a gifted pipa soloist performed my Pipa Concerto with the Honolulu Symphony Orchestra at their regular concerts on March 11 and 13 in Honolulu. Please see wonderful reviews by two representative papers there. She also made the European premiere of my East Arc with the Chamber Soloists Lucerne on March 20 brilliantly. Then, in early June “Yang Jing and Yui Ensemble” did annual concert tour in Tokushima under the support from Shikoku Electric Company, where we performed East Arc etc. On the way of this tour we met impressionable moment of sea turtle's spawning on the midnight Hiwasa beach. |
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I completed a percussion octet Z Conversion in February for the premiere on May 5 by the Japanese Percussion Society. My idea was to use a special “Zomeki” rhythm throughout the work. This rhythm is very popular in the Awa Odori (dance) Festival held in my native prefecture of Tokushima. However, unfortunately the society didn't get this year's support from the national foundation. So they decided to postpone their festival until next year, Alas ! |
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In this October, my Asia Ensemble will have two concerts in Tokyo (Ekorma Hall in Komae City on Oct.12) and Tajima-cho, Fukushima. Our repertory will start by my Origin, and end by special improvisation after my Wa. But in this year, we can add a new repertory by Prof. Shukoh Mizuno who moved very much by our last concert.
Now he is composing a new piece. It is exiting fact for me. |
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The 17th regular concert of ORA-J will be held on November 8 &10 in Tokyo and Chiba under my producing. I am planning to premiere a theatre piece Hagoromo which story is very famous in Japan and in 1995 it premiered as a music drama in Moscow as Japanese-Russian cooperation. This time I will use its 12 song melodies and ORA-J members including me will add instrumental sections for the drama with two singers. |
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I composed “Song of Flowers” which concluded my first Requiem and will be premiered at an upcoming performance by the Tokyo Liedertafel on November 20. I dedicated this dong to the people who are suffering in South Asia with deep lament. |
